Okay it's probably a foregone conclusion that tiles are here to stay, even though a lot of us hate them.. So any feedback we give will probably have to fit within that since the STO site design has to be mirrored for all of PWE's games. (Well the layout at least.) Here is my constructive advice.
So with those criteria in mind here is something I have been doing. It took less than 1 work day and it would be trivially easy for the web guys to emulate (I ENCOURAGE IT!) for not just the STO site, but for all PWE Arc sites.
*Removed rotating banner
*Removed persistent videos
*Changed background
*Tweaked a few CSS properties (mostly transparency, color, border strokes)
This will reduce my blood pressure and make the site more usable for me personally, but why stop there?
The following is what I believe an even better (from a visual, branding, and smooth UX experience stance) layout would be like, again with changes that would be incredibly easy for the web guys to implement in a few hours or less. I could do all of this in my browser with a Greasemonkey script if I were any good at javascript, but I'm not, so these images were made by building on top of my CSS changes above and adding to them by editing the page HTML with Firebug. (To be clear, the only photoshop in the next 6 images is the server status and search box.)
There's a bit of a negative space issue when doing it as 1 or 2 columns but with some image rescaling and using larger snippets from the full articles (at Cryptic's discretion) they could solve that fairly easily. /edit -edit#2-
Okay I did it. I dove in and took a shot at a Greasemonkey script. My amateur code is really pooptacular but I got everything as seen in my concept images except for the Server Status indicator and the search box.
No photoshop trickery involved. Just the Stylish theme I wrote before, combined with a new Greasemonkey script. /edit#2
*Duplicating the nav bar to the Product page reduces user confusion and reduces a degree of navigation digging that they have to do to find links.
*Moving the Product Page button link over to the left of the nav bar unifies it with the rest of the visual style and places it in closer proximity to the rest of the controls.
*Search is search. Search is good. Search is friend. We likey search.
*Duplicating the div box that contains the Product List from the Product page to all of the other pages does 2 things:
***1. It ensures that when you change from the Product page to any of the other pages, the navigation bar buttons and the beginning of content stay in the exact same x,y location (no visual popping, no confusion)
***2. It's a handy dandy place for a game logo and banner! Lots of people were complaining that "Star Trek Online" was a puny line of text on the other pages which was A) Demeaning to the brand, and Potentially confusing to brand new users that might think the page was for 'some game called Arc'
*Transparencies in CSS optional but sexy and help to combat the complaints about the site being a homogenized dull slab of gray.
*Backgrounds! You have giant wallpaper art Cryptic/PWE, use it!
*Server status. I don't need to explain this one.
*Banner list and persistent video block: To be frank, I didn't complain about the rotating banners on the previous STO site because they didn't eat up such a large chunk of my screen and they were visually distinct in their own frame/window. In this Arc site they are both large and their div/cell containers are basically the same bland style as all of the other news boxes which makes it more difficult to distinguish what the latest news is because they all blend together. Their functions are also duplicated on other pages. They irk me. I removed them.
I believe that these changes would be well received for all PWE/Arc sub-sites (just swap out the content for game-specific content).
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." — Lazarus Long --->Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Yup. Every time they change websites we lose useful functionality.
When it changed from startrekonline.com to sto.perfectworld.com we lost:
*Out of game mail access
*Out of game character bios (although the Gateway has re-added this, they said they'll probably kill off the Gateway because they don't know how to monetize it)
*Out of game captain's logs
*Out of game C-Store access
*Probably some other stuff I can't even remember (and the Wayback Machine is down right now so I can't check)
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
*Out of game character bios (although the Gateway has re-added this, they said they'll probably kill off the Gateway because they don't know how to monetize it)
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
STO is a great game, one I'm trying to get friends into. When they are told to download ARC by the website, some didn't even bother with the game. When I first downloaded STO, all I had to do was download the Client engine and that's it. Turn the thing off, and concentrate on the game!:mad::mad::mad:
Yeah I know what you mean. I have not been able to get anyone to download the game now that they have to go through Arc to do so.
And it is bloody annoying to have to enter my account name and password every bloody time I want to see or post something. You get the feeling you are on a phony website used to copy your personal datat. Not very reassuring. Not that Arc ever was.
I use the Arc program, and I like it as its convenient for me as a play other arc games. I like that I can see what is going on in those games from that program.
That said I really don't like the new web layout, its just awful compared to the old site in every way.
Its confusing, needlessly complicated and just ugly!
had to enter my account name and password 3 times, just to find my account status for sto.
After using it for a few days now, I don't really like it. I'm fine with the forums and ARC, but the new website is a jumbled mess. The media section is a hodgepodge of videos and wallpapers and screenshots all stuck together with no real organization. I had to look at the dates that things were posted on to make any sense of it. It's still not easy to do that either.
I liked the old site better. It had a proper flow and organization to it. This new one doesn't.
The one-armed bandit is already in the game; they call it lockboxes...
Tyr shall give me strength! For the glory of Tempus! I am the hands of Shar! Flames of Kossuth, protect me! Oghma, grant me knowledge! Lolth commands, and I obey!
I'm not even going to bother with the front page anymore. I saved the forums in my favs just for that. I'll live with having to sign in every time I do this even though I click the "Keep Me Signed In" option, it doesn't work. You guys going to fix this or what?
You know if cryptic/PWE does not want to listen to their community i say we band together and deny them what they do listen too... M-O-N-E-Y.
I mean hell since our opinions of making arc either optional or dropping it altogether because a vast majority simply doesn't want it, and since PWE/Cryptic wants to stonewall us into using pARC spyware, it only logically stands to reason that we as a community can grab PWE by the brass by refusing to spend another penny on any PWE game and stonewall them in to listening to the community for a change.
i mean after all it is as the old saying goes "Money Talks".
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but the fact that the art for the "Season 8.5 is now live" box has been reversed means the Starfleet officer is wearing his combadge on the wrong side. It looks bad.
...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
Here is my review so far.
Good:
1) I like when you scroll down it starts to load older new items
2) Website is currently still in beta.
Bad:
1) The news page does not allow you to easily go to much older news without having it load the page many times over
2) When loading much older news items the Java Script forces too many interrupts that it freezes the internet browser and slows the internet activity.
3) The website is not laid out to be user friendly (I used to be able to navigate between major categories but now I am very limited.
4) I am unable to view the bottom support bar since the news items keep forcing it to the bottom of the screen (so can not select contact support or view terms of service)
General comment:
This page development is indicative of modern website development (too much reliance on making the page look better than optimizing the page for user interaction and loading times), to me that is lazy website and programming development. :mad:
Note since you can make something more complicated does not mean you have to.
It took less than 1 work day and it would be trivially easy for the web guys to emulate (I ENCOURAGE IT!) for not just the STO site, but for all PWE Arc sites.
In less than 8 hours while at his job, ONE MAN has shamed PWE's entire web development staff... -.-'
Bravo sir this site looks 1000x more professional and eye catching. Far more tolerable thant PWE's own attempt.
----
For people having a 'stay logged in' issue, have you tried deleting all the cookies in your history and trying again? I know it seems improbable but often this fixes the issue for me.
Argggg I Never Usually Post Here But This Issue Cught My Eye Hey (person In Charge Of Cryptic Whoever U R Reuturn To The Old Style Site I Havent Seen One Good Comment On This Piece Of S---- New Website Im A 4 Year Vet Of The Game Subcribed For 500+ Days And I Am Geting Really Anoyed That U Guys Dont Seem To Get The F
Mesage Evrbody Does Not Like It I Hate Too It Mad Me Crash Eevry Time I Try To Use It Oh By The Way Put A Server Status Widget On There Too And While U R At It Make To Where Players Can Choose To Have The Old Style To Sto Website Too As A Option Geeeez When Will U Idiots Learn Players Wil Only Take So Much TRIBBLE Before Deciding To Play New Game Elder Scrolls Online Im Definitly Thinking About It Whether I Do Is Up To U Guys At Cryptic/imperfectworld
In less than 8 hours while at his job, ONE MAN has shamed PWE's entire web development staff... -.-'
Bravo sir this site looks 1000x more professional and eye catching. Far more tolerable thant PWE's own attempt.
I agree completely, that is a far more professional looking and eye appealing presentation, that has an unmistakable Star Trek look, unlike this sites new improved bland generic appearance.
Better to kill it off than have it continue like this.
Sometime I wonder if a petition campaign to CBS would help throttle this abomination but I doubt it, as long as the money keeps rolling in things will continue on as they are going. That said the evidence is overwhelming, Arc is coming people and very soon and all of the prevarication in the world isn't going to alter the truth that we aren't being given a choice in the matter.
If something is not broken, don't fix it, if it is broken, don't leave it broken.
why does the best star trek game ever have to be rune by stupid moronsnim not talking about devs or desighners im talking about the people in charge at per ahhhmm imperfect world who thinks evryone love this arc layout and will kiss the screen every time NEWS F----ING FLASH PERFECT WORLD WE HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE ANOTHER VERSION STAR TREK THEMS SIMILAR TO OLD ONE OR REVERT TO OLD ONE PERMANENTLY AND REVAMP IT LIK U SUPOSED TO DO TO A WEBSITE REGULARLY THANX VERY ANOOYED AND GETTING MORE ANNOYED ALL THE TIME LOYAL CUSTOMER HOW LONG I AM A LYAL CUSTOMER DEPENDS ON U GUYS ACTUALLY LISING AND READING THESE POSTS I SEE IM OVER #240+ COMMENTS 99% BAD IF THAT STATISTIC DOESNT TELL U GUYS TO SCRAP ARC I GUESS U WILL LOSE CUSTOMERS TO ELDER SCROLLS IN DROVES
Comments
http://half-life2.com http://www.thinkwithportals.com http://www.teamfortress.com http://www.l4d.com
Each of this sites has its own design and web address.
If PWE indeed wanted to follow Valve's example, they would leave old STO site at http://startrekonline.com
So with those criteria in mind here is something I have been doing. It took less than 1 work day and it would be trivially easy for the web guys to emulate (I ENCOURAGE IT!) for not just the STO site, but for all PWE Arc sites.
Using only some CSS changes and the Stylish extension for Firefox the website looks like this in my browser, live, right now (no photoshop involved!):
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_CSS.jpg~original
*Removed rotating banner
*Removed persistent videos
*Changed background
*Tweaked a few CSS properties (mostly transparency, color, border strokes)
This will reduce my blood pressure and make the site more usable for me personally, but why stop there?
The following is what I believe an even better (from a visual, branding, and smooth UX experience stance) layout would be like, again with changes that would be incredibly easy for the web guys to implement in a few hours or less. I could do all of this in my browser with a Greasemonkey script if I were any good at javascript, but I'm not, so these images were made by building on top of my CSS changes above and adding to them by editing the page HTML with Firebug. (To be clear, the only photoshop in the next 6 images is the server status and search box.)
New News page:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_News3.jpg~original
Product page:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_Product3.jpg~original
Guides:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_Guides3.jpg~original
Media:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_Media3.jpg~original
-edit-
1-column news:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_News_1Column.jpg~original
2-column news:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_News_2Column.jpg~original
There's a bit of a negative space issue when doing it as 1 or 2 columns but with some image rescaling and using larger snippets from the full articles (at Cryptic's discretion) they could solve that fairly easily.
/edit
-edit#2-
Okay I did it. I dove in and took a shot at a Greasemonkey script. My amateur code is really pooptacular but I got everything as seen in my concept images except for the Server Status indicator and the search box.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/PWE_Site_Changes/MB_CSS_v2.jpg~original
No photoshop trickery involved. Just the Stylish theme I wrote before, combined with a new Greasemonkey script.
/edit#2
*Duplicating the nav bar to the Product page reduces user confusion and reduces a degree of navigation digging that they have to do to find links.
*Moving the Product Page button link over to the left of the nav bar unifies it with the rest of the visual style and places it in closer proximity to the rest of the controls.
*Search is search. Search is good. Search is friend. We likey search.
*Duplicating the div box that contains the Product List from the Product page to all of the other pages does 2 things:
***1. It ensures that when you change from the Product page to any of the other pages, the navigation bar buttons and the beginning of content stay in the exact same x,y location (no visual popping, no confusion)
***2. It's a handy dandy place for a game logo and banner! Lots of people were complaining that "Star Trek Online" was a puny line of text on the other pages which was A) Demeaning to the brand, and
*Transparencies in CSS optional but sexy and help to combat the complaints about the site being a homogenized dull slab of gray.
*Backgrounds! You have giant wallpaper art Cryptic/PWE, use it!
*Server status. I don't need to explain this one.
*Banner list and persistent video block: To be frank, I didn't complain about the rotating banners on the previous STO site because they didn't eat up such a large chunk of my screen and they were visually distinct in their own frame/window. In this Arc site they are both large and their div/cell containers are basically the same bland style as all of the other news boxes which makes it more difficult to distinguish what the latest news is because they all blend together. Their functions are also duplicated on other pages. They irk me. I removed them.
I believe that these changes would be well received for all PWE/Arc sub-sites (just swap out the content for game-specific content).
TL;DR: Look at my shiny pictures.
Joined January 2009
When it changed from startrekonline.com to sto.perfectworld.com we lost:
*Out of game mail access
*Out of game character bios (although the Gateway has re-added this, they said they'll probably kill off the Gateway because they don't know how to monetize it)
*Out of game captain's logs
*Out of game C-Store access
*Probably some other stuff I can't even remember (and the Wayback Machine is down right now so I can't check)
Now that it's changing to Arc we're losing (in addition to the above):
*Server status indicator
*Character transfer screen (for an unknown period of time)
and presumably all of the following pages that haven't been copied to Arc (because just as startrekonline.com is long gone, sto.perfectworld.com will be permanently removed at some point):
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/faq (different from the F2P FAQ that has been copied over http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/freetoplay-faq)
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/feature-episodes
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/factions
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-main
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/gameupdates
Joined January 2009
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/faq
(Different from the F2P FAQ that has been copied over! http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/freetoplay-faq)
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/factions
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/gameupdates
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/feature-episodes
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-main
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-faq
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-learn
http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-tutorials
Testimonials section of: http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-spotlight
Joined January 2009
This is how STO will look in a few years.
pfff thats for oldies way of doing it this is new age stuff here
system Lord Baal is dead
All I have to say is..
Joined January 2009
Except that slot machines by law are guaranteed to eventually pay out, at some point.
Sadly that same law does not apply to mmorpgs.
redshirtarmy.com - RedShirtArmy Podcast
STO / Cryptic member since 2009 (mavgeek)
Yeah I know what you mean. I have not been able to get anyone to download the game now that they have to go through Arc to do so.
And it is bloody annoying to have to enter my account name and password every bloody time I want to see or post something. You get the feeling you are on a phony website used to copy your personal datat. Not very reassuring. Not that Arc ever was.
That said I really don't like the new web layout, its just awful compared to the old site in every way.
Its confusing, needlessly complicated and just ugly!
had to enter my account name and password 3 times, just to find my account status for sto.
for the love of Q! change the sites back!!!!
I liked the old site better. It had a proper flow and organization to it. This new one doesn't.
Mine Trap Supporter
Oh, i get it.
You know that actually makes sense if you stop and think about it.
Technically, i think they call that - replicating & optimizing -.
Maybe they actually own stock in the company.
The stock price is impressive.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where
we started and know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot
The one-armed bandit is already in the game; they call it lockboxes...
For the glory of Tempus!
I am the hands of Shar!
Flames of Kossuth, protect me!
Oghma, grant me knowledge!
Lolth commands, and I obey!
I mean hell since our opinions of making arc either optional or dropping it altogether because a vast majority simply doesn't want it, and since PWE/Cryptic wants to stonewall us into using pARC spyware, it only logically stands to reason that we as a community can grab PWE by the brass by refusing to spend another penny on any PWE game and stonewall them in to listening to the community for a change.
i mean after all it is as the old saying goes "Money Talks".
I guess this will be like the whole "redirect loop" problem with the support page- as in if we're lucky they'll get it sorted in late 2016. :rolleyes:
If people will stop spending on STO, PWE will shut it down. Hardly a solution.
Good:
1) I like when you scroll down it starts to load older new items
2) Website is currently still in beta.
Bad:
1) The news page does not allow you to easily go to much older news without having it load the page many times over
2) When loading much older news items the Java Script forces too many interrupts that it freezes the internet browser and slows the internet activity.
3) The website is not laid out to be user friendly (I used to be able to navigate between major categories but now I am very limited.
4) I am unable to view the bottom support bar since the news items keep forcing it to the bottom of the screen (so can not select contact support or view terms of service)
General comment:
This page development is indicative of modern website development (too much reliance on making the page look better than optimizing the page for user interaction and loading times), to me that is lazy website and programming development. :mad:
Note since you can make something more complicated does not mean you have to.
Bravo sir this site looks 1000x more professional and eye catching. Far more tolerable thant PWE's own attempt.
----
For people having a 'stay logged in' issue, have you tried deleting all the cookies in your history and trying again? I know it seems improbable but often this fixes the issue for me.
Better to kill it off than have it continue like this.
Mesage Evrbody Does Not Like It I Hate Too It Mad Me Crash Eevry Time I Try To Use It Oh By The Way Put A Server Status Widget On There Too And While U R At It Make To Where Players Can Choose To Have The Old Style To Sto Website Too As A Option Geeeez When Will U Idiots Learn Players Wil Only Take So Much TRIBBLE Before Deciding To Play New Game Elder Scrolls Online Im Definitly Thinking About It Whether I Do Is Up To U Guys At Cryptic/imperfectworld
Sometime I wonder if a petition campaign to CBS would help throttle this abomination but I doubt it, as long as the money keeps rolling in things will continue on as they are going. That said the evidence is overwhelming, Arc is coming people and very soon and all of the prevarication in the world isn't going to alter the truth that we aren't being given a choice in the matter.